The DAZN Boxing Show believes that Lydon Arthur made it hard for Dmitry Bivol at the weekend.
The Englishman was the stark underdog going into his fight against the WBA light heavyweight champion at the "Day of Reckoning", but despite consistent pressure from Bivol, he saw out every round.
However, Arthur, who lost his IBO championship to Bivol, rarely made any effective punches of his own and the result never seemed in doubt.
Akin Reyes told The DAZN Boxing Show that the spectacle was perhaps not the best of the night given Bivol’s failure to turn his dominance into a stoppage.
He said: “I wasn’t super impressed. I think Arthur was someone who wasn’t that busy, who was on retreat for most of the night, and there were opportunities for Bivol to show more power.
“But I think for a pound-for-pound guy, that fight did not play out as I envisioned it.”
Barak Bess countered: “I think it was a typical Dmitry Bivol fight, he throws a 1-2-1 or 1-2-3, but even that three is from long range.
“He’s not sitting on his punches. Even when he went in on Lyndon Arthur, they weren’t hard enough to get Lydon out of there.
“I think Bivol tried to get the knockout as early as possible, but you can’t knock out a fighter who is in defensive mode a lot of the time.”
Reyes added: “He was in defensive mode, he was in survival mode.”